Warren Beatty- Clyde Barrow
He was already a star before this. Bonnie and Clyde was a Star Vehicle for him. He was most known for his role in Splendour in the grass, his debut film. Before this he had won some awards for his only work on stage. Along with tis he had previously made appearances on Television in shows like The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which he stayed on for its first season. After Bonnie and Clyde’s success, Beatty was able to gain a role in films like ‘Bugsy’ (1991) and ‘Shampoo’ (1975) which he also co-wrote.
Faye Dunaway- Bonnie Parker
She was originally a Broadway actress before starring in Bonnie and Clyde. She performed in shows like ‘A Man for All Seasons’ and ‘After the Fall’. While Bonnie and Clyde was her raise to fame, it was not her screen debut, that was ‘The Happening’ where she was recognised by critics for her talents. That role was what got her hired for Bonnie, as Penn thought that her performance in it proved that she had the face for screen. After Bonnie and Clyde her roles included roles in The Handmaid’s tale (1990) and Arizona Dream (1994)
Michael J. Pollard- C.W. Moss
Pollard was chosen for the role by Beatty, as they knew each other due to them performing together on Broadway, likely in ‘A Loss of Roses’ in 1960. Before Bonnie and Clyde, Pollard had a few television appearances, notably in an adaptation of The Human Comedy. Due to him being known for his short stature, he was able to get younger roles into his thirties, such as small roles in ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Lost In Space’ While C.W. Moss was his best known role he has also had roles in Little Fauss and ‘Big Halsy’ and ‘Dirty Little Billy’.
Gene Hackman- Buck Barrow
Beatty saw him in his first credited screen role ‘Lilith’ (1964) and thought he was ‘a great actor’. He was on Broadway briefly in Children From Their Games, but had multiple stage appearances off Broadway in shows like ‘The Saintliness of Margery Kempe’ and ‘Come to the Palace of Sin’. After Bonnie and Clyde, he got a breakthrough role in ‘The French Connection’.
Estelle Parsons- Blanche Barrow
Parsons made her Broadway debut in 1956 in the musical ‘Happy Hunting’. After Bonnie and Clyde, she was nominated for her work in ‘Rachel, Rachel’ the following year. She has also portrayed Lady Macbeth on the stage in 1978.
Denver Pyle- Frank Hamer
Pyle’s screen debut came in 1947 in the movie Devil ship. Pyle had many roles in television as well, such as on ‘The Range Rider’, ’The Duke of Hazzard’ and ‘The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams’.
Dub Taylor- Ivan Moss
He had his screen debut in 1938 in ‘You Can’t Take It with You’. In 1939, Taylor get the part of Cannonball in ‘Taming of the West’, a character he would continue to play for 10 years. He was mainly known as a western actor.
Gene Wilder- Eugene Grizzard
Bonnie and Clyde was Wilder’s screen debut. before then, he had mainly been a stage actor, acting in shows like ‘The Complacent Lover’ and ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next’. His most well known role is his portrait of Willy Wonka in the 1971 adaptation of ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’
Mise-en-Scene:
Locations and Sets – Bonnie and Clyde was largely filmed in Texas rather than in Holly wood. This was done firstly to try and stop studio interference and secondly because the real Bonnie and Clyde where from Texas. The locations that where filmed in where largely real places rather than studio backlot stages. The interiors where all made to represent the films time period (the 1930s)
Clothing – While most of the costume design is time period accurate, Bonnie is the exception. Her outfits are much more 60s inspired and went on to influence the fashion of the time period.
Props – All of the cars where leant to the studio by a collector, and are all from the 1930s.
Editing:
the editing in Bonnie and Clyde is very inspired by the French New wave, this is evident in the opening scene of this film. Instead of having an establishing long shot like Casablanca, Bonnie and Clyde starts with a close up on Bonnie’s mouth, it shifting to her in the mirror. This opening scene tries to show more metaphorically than literally, by showing her clutching the bars on her bedframe it tells the audience that she feels unhappy, or trapped in her current life, which is when Clyde appears outside, the man who will change her life and make her feel that freedom that she is longing for in that moment. As well as this, the editing takes heavy inspiration from the French New Wave in other ways, such as its snappy cuts, which goes against the typical old Hollywood style film. this doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take anything from the Old Hollywood style, it uses techniques like a ‘shot, reverse, shot’ when characters are talking to each other
Sound:
Underscoring– The underscore of Bonnie and Clyde is most prevalent during the car chase scenes, where blue grass style music is played in the background. This gives the, what would usually be intense, scene a sense of joy and whimsy. But this music will cut out when it is needed, which gives the audience the audible que that the scene has lost that sense of fun and is now much more serious. this is best seen towards the end of the Film where CW Moss’ father is meeting with someone and the music that had carried on from the previous scene of Bonnie and Clyde in the field is suddenly cut off when it is revealed that the person he was meeting with was Frank Hamer, the cop who is after Bonnie and Clyde. This sudden shift in tone with the audio tells the audience that this is a bad thing without the need for any dialogue. It is also used to establish scenes, like when Bonnie meets with her Mother. A small piece of music is played to establish the scene
Sound Motifs– Sound motifs are somewhat present in the film. The main one being the upbeat blue grass music in the car chases. The blue grass style music is meant to evoke the feeling of the great depression which further ground the film in its time period.
Sound Mixing- Music will suddenly cut out to evoke emotions in the audience. The sound director Dede Allan was one of the first people to utilise the technique of sound bridging (L/J-cuts). this can be seen in the scenes that play following most of the car chases. This helps to suddenly change to tone of a scene.
Aesthetics:
Realism– The movie takes heavy inspiration from the realism used in French new wave. this is accomplished by the sets being real places, which grounds the film in reality.
Tone– The tone in Bonnie and Clyde is constantly shifting. As said previously, the tone can shift from fun and whimsical with the car chases to very serious once a force that could endanger Bonnie and Clyde seriously comes into play, such as Frank Hamer at the end of the film.
Visual Style– the movie is very realistic with its lighting. the visual style takes inspiration from the French new wave with the cinematography (i.e. extreme close ups).
Representations:
Men-
Clyde and Buck are fearless and don’t show much emotion when committing their crimes, Moss is not like that (panic in cinema 29:11) and stays emotional throughout the film (1:22:32) but does drive them to get help when they get shot (1:28:29). Clyde is less intimate than Bonnie and shows some reluctance about it until the end of the film (32:54) (1:40:14) which was not conventional of men at tis time, making him less stereotypical.
Women-
They are shown as emotional (blanche) (bonnie getting emotional over her mother). Bonnie is shown to be just as bad as Clyde and so is seen as dangerous rather than timid. Bonnie is a revolutionary character for the time, being a lot more sexual and forward about that with Clyde. This is important because of the climate about sexuality from around the time, having the Counterculture movement be quite popular around the time. This sensuality about her is made clear from the very beginning when she is in her room nude, and the shot of her lips are the very beginning already telling the audience abut her focus on her looks.
Authority Figures-
Frank Hamer is made fun of at the beginning of the film when they humiliate him in the forest. (52:10) but then he comes back and is eventually the man who gets Bonnie and Clyde killed. Bonnie and Clyde are constantly running from Authorities in the movie, so the audience automatically buts them in a sort of villain role for the movie. The scenes are played off as comical with the music in the background putting that to the forefront. This makes the audience feel as if, while threatening to the protagonists, the Authorities are a joke in the context f the movie.
People of Colour-
There are only a few people on colour featured in the movie, and none of them have lines. There was racism in the south at the time. One of them is working with the farm family at the beginning
Working Class Americans-
Bonnie feels trapped in her old job at the beginning of the movie, this is shown visually at the beginning of the film with her reaching at her bedframe, giving the illusion tat they are some sort of prison bars. Which could also be taken a foreshadowing to her life in crime. She sees crime as her only way out of her current life. One of the banks that they rob is actually closing down, which shows that they’re not making enough money to keep themselves open. Towards the beginning of the film, Bonnie and Clyde take shelter in an unoccupied farm house, they are found in it as they are practicing shooting, and they find out the family who used o own the place had it taken from them by the bank. They give the farmer a gun to shoot at the house, which shows the attitudes towards the bank at the time, especially by Farmers.
Political and Social contexts:
When the film was being made, there was a large push by the American Counter Culture movement for a more Liberal society. This is impactful because the character of Bonnie is very aligned with the ideas of this time. She was much more sensual which was one of the things they advocated for, the idea of sexual liberation as well as the avocation for women’s rights. Along with this, due to the ongoing Vietnam war, Penn decided that more graphic violence would be needed for the film to reflect the society of the time.
While the context for the time period the movie is set in is the great depression. This was caused by the wall street crash in 1929, this caused a serious loss in money for almost everyone in American society. This can be seen in the film by the banks closing down and the farmers who had their property repossessed by the banks that are losing their money.